Publishers Weekly
"[B]y viewing history through the prism of democracy, Wilentz often discovers illuminating angles on his subject." 08/01/2005Nation
"Drawing on extensive research and a deep immersion in modern scholarship--the footnotes alone provide a road map to the last quarter-century of historical writing--the book is a magisterial synthesis that deserves the attention of anyone interested in the American past." - Eric Foner 10/31/2005 New Yorker
"What [Wilentz has] done in THE RISE OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY, and done exceedingly well, is to trace the play between politicians and political ideas, on the one hand, and the people and popular movements, on the other....Readers may weary at the length of Wilentz's book, but, as a model for integrating social and political history, it's hard to dispute." - Jill Lepore 10/24/2005 Newsweek
"[A] magnificent chronicle. the life of an idea that, although it is mentioned nowhere in the Constitution, nevertheless slowly elbowed its way into the heart of American life." - Malcolm Jones 10/31/2005 New York Times Book Review
"This enormous book by Sean Wilentz has been in the works a long time, and the results are nothing less than monumental. [I]t is a tour-de-force of historical compilation and construction that more than justifies all the articles and monographs on antebellum politics written by historians over the past several decades. Wilentz...has drawn extensively on these secondary sources and on his own research. He has brought it all together into a clear and generally readable narrative." - Gordon S. Wood 11/13/2005 "The writing is about as engaging and lucid as a reader of contemporary history could ask for...." - Gideon Lewis-Kraus Spring, 2006 "THE RISE OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY is a truly magnificent effort. It's size...may deter some readers, but it will surely become a landmark of American historiography. It is elegantly written, imaginatively conceived, and the footnotes alone are worth reading as a guide to the past thirty years of scholarship on pre-Civil War US history." - Adam I. P. Smith 04/14/2006 | 
